[House  Bft.L,  No.  48.] 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES.— May  6th,  1S64— Read  first 
and  second  times,  referred  to  Committee  on  Military  Affairs,  and  or- 
dered to  be  printed. 

[By  Mr.  Chambers.] 


A   BILL 

To  he  entitled  an  act  to  amend  an  act  entitled  "  an  act  to  regulate  Im- 
pressments,''^ (vpyroved  March  26th,  1863,  and  an  act  amendatory 
thereof,  approved  Fcbrnary  IGtk,  1864. 

The  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  do  enact,  That  the  act 

2  entitled  "an  act   to  regulate  impressments,"   approved   March 

3  twenty-sixth,  eighteen    hundred   and   sixty-three,    and   the   act 

4  amendatory  thereof,  approved  February  sixteenth,  eighteen  hun- 

5  dred  and  sixty-four,  be  so  amended  as  to  provide  as  follows : 

1.  That  the  President  be  and  is  hereby  authorized  to  appoint 

2  one  person,  not  liable  t6  military  service,  in  each  congressional 

3  district  of  the  several  states,  to  act  as  impressing  agent,  whose 

4  duty  shall  be  to  regulate  and  superintend  all  impressments  of 
•5  property  in  his  district,  and  require  the  same  to  be  made,  as 

6  herein  after  provided,  under  the  authority  and  upon  the  wutten 

7  order  to  him  directed,  of  the  General  commanding  the  departs 

8  ment  in  which  the  district  may  be  situated. 

2.  That  said  district  agents  shall  appoint  one  sub-agent,  not 
2  liable  to  military  service,  in  each  county  of  their  several  districts, 


2 

■]  whose  duty  shall  be  to  make  im^^ressments  on  the  written  order 

4  of  the  district  agent,  and  deliver  the  property  impressed  at  any 
0.  point  and  to  any  party  the  district  agent  shall  designate.     The 

6  said  order  shall  specify  the  kind  and  quantity  of  the  property  to 

7  be  impressed,  and  the  period  of  time  during  which  the  impress- 

5  ment  may  be  made ;  and  a  copy  thereof  shall  be  furnished  the 
9  owner  of  the  property  prior  to  its  impressment.     Each  district 

JO  agent  shall  receive  a  salary  of  one  thousand  dollars  per  annum, 

11  and  each  county  agent  eight  dollars  per  day  when  actually  em- 

12  ployed,  without  further  allowance,  for  merely  personal  expenses 

13  incurred  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  under  this  act,  and  shall 
14-  make  oath  before  a  judge  or  clerk  of  a  court  of  record  faithfully 

1 5  to  perform  the  duties  of  their  offices  according  to  law ;  and  any 

16  owner  of  property  about  to  be  impressed  may  require  the  county 

17  agent  to  exhibit  a  certified  copy  of  said  oath. 

3.  The  value  of  property  impressed  shall  be  ascertained,  and 

2  compensation  be  made,  as  provided  by  existing  laws,  except  that 

3  the  county  agent,  whose  appointment  is  authorized  by  this  act, 

4  shall  take  the  place  of  the  impressing  officer  or  other  person 

5  heretofore  authorized  to  make  impressments. 

4.  That  the  acts  referred  to  in  the  first  section  of  this  act  be 

2  and  the  same  are  hereby  rej^ealed,  in  so  far  only  as  they  contra- 

3  vene  the  provisions  of  this  act. 


Rrtrc 


